CB Radio help

Need some help with CB Radio.
I'm waiting on a front mount from a local fab shop, the pod/ditch light mount with the extension on the side for antenna. So this is just a temp set up until they have them ready to order.
I bought some 1/8 steal stock and bent up a bracket that I can attach to. The whole bracket thing mounts to a bed rail. I sanded off a bit of the paint on the rail to have it have bare metal showing to touch the mount, I only painted some of the mount and it was all put together prior to paint so bare metal touches. You can see in the pic I didn't ground the antenna yet, as the guys from the shop where I got the stuff from said I shouldn't need to if I'm mounting to metal. In the future I might need to though, so don't cut it off the antenna.

I don't have an SWR meter so haven't really been able to tune the antenna but regardless all I get on the Cobra 75WXST is static on pretty much all channels. I think it was channel 6 or 7 was the only one I got some clarity on where it sounded like some sort of radio station or something where it was just some Jamaican guy talking into it.
Trying to figure out why all I'm getting is static and not hearing anything. I have confirmed its the antenna as I found something online saying if you disconnect antenna and static goes away its the antenna, if it doesn't its the power source causing the problem. So power is clean. Is this just from not having a good ground or is this because I haven't used a SWR meter to tune it?

I've got a Wilson 3ft antenna w/ tuneable tip.
Sorry for the long post.

 

well remember the bed is composite, so its not grounded. maybe ground that wire first. also you can adjust the radios squelch so you dont hear static.

 

@WileECoyote

 

To the OP, this would be my very first guess as well!!! I would ground that antenna to your trucks actual chassis or something that is connected to that chassis that is metal in of itself, if you know what I mean?

Also, you have a 3ft tunable? I can GUARANTEE you that your SWR is NOT going to do very well regardless of it being "tunable". As a rule of thumb, you want roughly half or more of your antenna to be above any structure or as far away from the structure/obstruction (i.e. in this case, your trucks cab). Your antenna is WAAAY too close to the cab and not sticking up above it far enough as well. When you TX (transmit), most of that is going to be reflected back into the antenna, back down the RF cable, and finally on back into your radio's output!!! NOT a good thing and regardless of a tunable antenna and eventually, you WILL fry the output of the radio itself!!! In other words, you will NEVER be able to tune it good enough to where you will get decent transmission output!!!

 

It's mounted to the bed rail and I already tested I got 1ohm of resistance so almost none from mount to the door lock where I was testing for good ground. I've also mounted the ground wire to the mount itself to ground it.

Waiting on my swr meter now to test it out.

This is just a temp set up anyways, it's eventually going on the front hood on one of the pod mounts. And maybe eventually onto a front bumper.

I'll have to see how the swr is once I get it. Should be here today or tomorrow

 

It's the Cobra one where everything is in the mic. Not a full unit